redemption

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Saturday, 12 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joel 4 : 12-21

Rise up, o peoples, and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, nations. Bring a sickle for the harvest is ripe; come and tread for the winepress is full and the vats overflow, so great is their wickedness!

Multitudes and more multitudes in the Valley of Verdict! The day of YHVH is near in the Valley of Verdict! The sun and the moon become dark, the stars lose their radiance. YHVH roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth are shaken. Indeed YHVH is a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the Israelites.

You will know that I am YHVH, your God, dwelling on Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy place, and foreigners will never pass through there again. On that day the mountains shall drip wine and the hills flow with milk; all the streams of Judah will run with water and a fountain will spring from the House of YHVH, and water the valley of Shittim.

On the other hand, Egypt will be devastated and Edom will become a deserted wasteland because they committed violence against Judah, and shed innocent blood in their country. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations. And I shall avenge their blood and not leave it unpunished, for YHVH dwells in Zion.

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 15-26

Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guard his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'”

“When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Friday, 11 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Joel 1 : 13-15 and Joel 2 : 1-2

Gird yourselves, o priests, and weep; mourn, o ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, o ministers of my God! For the house of your God is deprived of grain and drink offering.

Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land into the house of your God, and cry out to YHVH, “What a dreadful day – the day of YHVH that draws near and comes as ruin from the Almighty!

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of YHVH is coming. Yes, the day is fast approaching – a day of gloom and darkness, a day of clouds and blackness. A vast and mighty army comes, like dawn spreading over the mountain, such as has never occurred before nor will happen again in the future.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

The Lord is love, and He cares for us like a father cares for his children. That is no mere love, but unconditional love, a form of pure love between individuals that is corrupted neither by worldly desires nor by our personal desires. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that, in essence, is what the love and dedication the Lord our God has for us, as our Father and Creator, and as our friend and caretaker.

Much blessings and graces He had prepared for us, and He had prepared His angels to come and serve to our needs. It does not mean that ever since we have sinned against God, then we are forever cut out of His loving embrace. In fact, He brings us even closer towards Himself and tries His best to return us to the path of the righteous that we will live in glory and not die in condemnation.

All these He had generously prepared for us, and everything is ready to be unleashed upon us, awaiting only for our call to Him. Just like a father and his children, that if the children call out for the father in need of something, that father will rush immediately to his children’s side, leaving everything that he is currently doing, and ready to deliver to his children, his help and his undying love.

Such is the nature of God’s love for us, and we are truly special to Him, each and every one of us. The Lord needs us only to call out to Him. Yes, we only need to ask and knock at His doors, and He will certainly answer us. What we need is simply to come and approach Him with an open heart, open for His love and care for us. If we do not knock, or if we are afraid to approach Him because of our fear for His anger, then we will never gain access to the Lord’s unfailing help.

The Lord also does not punish us or rebuke us without a clear reason, and neither did He punish us because He took pleasure in seeing our suffering and pain. On the contrary, what He truly wished from us is our liberation from sin, and the chains of slavery which had bounded us to sin from the beginning of time.

He admonishes us and punishes us like a father punishing his child, driven not by hatred or anger, but by love, genuine love he has for his child. Therefore, in the same way, God who is our Father also loves us so dearly that, in order to prevent us from falling again into sin and therefore risk losing us for eternity to damnation in hell, He makes Himself available for us, to seek, to knock at His door, and to seek for His love and mercy.

We have to remember the fundamental thing that, we belong to the Lord, and therefore, it is natural that He wants us to behave exactly like what He expects of us, that is to be good and loving just as He is good and loving. He, as our eternal Father certainly will not let harm or evil come to us. He will use all within His power to deliver us from the hands of Satan, and He will make sure that we remain in the light.

That is why, brethren, let us, from now on, commit ourselves to love the Lord our God and Father ever more, and no longer walk in the path of sin and darkness, but instead walk in the light with God. May the Lord who loves us with all of His heart, continue to love us and empower us with His love, that we too may love Him in the same way, as well as loving our fellow brothers and sisters, the same children of God.

For too long we have belonged in the darkness, and it is time for us to rise up and walk towards God’s love. Let us wait no longer and instead accept the offer of the Lord’s salvation, He who extended His hands for us all, that we may walk in His path and be saved, in eternal life of bliss and joy in heaven. May God Almighty and ever-loving Lord continue to strengthen us with His love, protecting us and caring for us, admonishing us whenever we err in our path, but at the same time, giving us hope for eternal salvation in Him.

God be with us all and may He open His door, the door of His love to us, just as we open the doors of our heart to His loving presence. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Malachi 3 : 13-20a

You say very harsh things about Me, says YHVH, and yet you say : “What harsh things did we say against You. You say : ‘It is useless to serve God. There is no benefit in observing His commandments or in leading an austere life for His sake. Happy are the shameless! Those who do evil succeed in everything; though they provoke God, they remain unharmed.”

Those were the very words of those who fear YHVH. YHVH listened and heard what they said. He ordered at once that the names of those who respect Him and reverence His Name be written in a record.

And He declared, “They will be Mine on the day I have already set. Then I shall care for them as a father cares for his obedient son. And you will see the different fates of the good and the bad, those who obey God and those who disobey Him.”

“The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day all the proud and evildoers will be burned like straw in the fire. They will be left without branches or roots. On the other hand the sun of justice will shine upon you who respect My Name and bring health in its rays.”

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Wednesday, 9 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Denis, Bishop and Companions, Martyrs, and St. John Leonardi, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priest)

Jonah 4 : 1-11

But Jonah was greatly displeased at this, and he was indignant. He prayed to YHVH and said, “O YHVH, is this not what I said when I was yet in my own country? This is why I fled to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and full of love, and You relent from imposing terrible punishment.”

“I beseech You now, YHVH, to take my life, for now it is better for me to die than to live.” But YHVH replied, “What right have you to be angry?”

Jonah then left the city. He went to a place east of it, built himself a shelter and sat under its shade to wait and see what would happen to Nineveh. Then YHVH God provided a castor-oil plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade over his head and to ease his discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the plant.

But the next day, at dawn, God sent a worm which attacked the plant and made it wither. When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind; the sun blazed down upon Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. His death wish returned and he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?” Jonah answered, “I am right to be angry enough to wish to die.”

YHVH said, “You are concerned about a plant which cost you no labour to make it grow. Overnight it sprang up, and overnight it perished. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish right from left and they have many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned for such a great city?”

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Tuesday, 8 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is loving and merciful, and He desires nothing from us other than our love and total dedication to Him, and that is what He told Martha, on the love and dedication Mary her sister had for Him. And that is also what He truly desired from the people of Nineveh, that they abandoned their sinful ways and instead took the bold steps towards redemption and salvation.

For many of us, brethren in Christ, are like Martha, who are too busy for the Lord, busy with all the activities that we have, busy with all the things of the world, that we forget about the most important of all, that is loving Christ and giving of ourselves to Him, through our dedication and love. We revel much in the pleasures of the world and gave ourselves in, to the temptations of the devil.

We are so busy and so preoccupied in what we are doing, that we lost sight of the true goal that we have in life, and sadly, many of us are like Martha, whose intention is actually good, in wanting to serve and provide for the Lord, through her service, but became too preoccupied in the rigour of the work, that the work and business take precedence over loving our Lord and God.

We also tend to be like the people of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, who lived in sin and basked in their sinfulness. They enjoyed all the pleasures of the world and did things abominable in the eyes of the Lord our God. This is what brought the Lord’s wrath upon them, the divine vengeance which He announced to them through Jonah the prophet.

It is easy for us to lose track of the truth and lose sight of the truth, because we have failed to filter out the noise of the world, which threatens to block the Lord from our hearts. We live in this increasingly noisier world, where mankind listen less and less to the heeding of the Lord, and pay more attention to their ego, their desires, and their wants.

The Lord speaks to us, brothers and sisters, inside our hearts, conveying to us His message of love inside our hearts, for each and every one of us. He wants us to understand the importance of love, especially the love for Him, and the love for our fellow mankind. We are truly creatures of love, created by God Himself who is Love. And yet, because we are often entangled within the evils in this world, we tend to love less and hate more, and even if we love, we tend to only love and care for ourselves.

This is why, brethren, we ought to be like the people of Nineveh, because even though they are sinful and had committed things abominable in the sight of the Lord, they repented once they knew the anger of the Lord is upon them, and humbly placed themselves, kneeling and prostrating with shame in front of the throne of God, even their king, showing the genuine nature of their repentance.

This is what made the Lord to spare all of them instead of punishing them for their sins. This is because the Lord truly loves us and does not want to punish us, all because of His eternal love. He will certainly welcome us back with love, if we repent from our sins in full sincerity.

Then, we also ought to be like Mary, the sister of Martha, at an even higher level of dedication to the Lord. This is because even without the threat of punishment or annihilation, she gave her full attention, dedication, and love to Jesus our Lord and gave her full heart to Him. That is what the Lord truly wants from us, our love.

We must not lose sight of our true goal in life, brothers and sisters, that is to reach out for the Lord, and the salvation that He offers to all of us. And we can achieve this through love, through the manifestation of our love in our words, deeds, and actions, daily in our world. In that, we show the extent of love we have for the Lord, that we listen to Him and His will, and like Mary, give our full heart’s attention for Him.

May the Lord who is loving and forgiving continue to watch over us and give us His tender love, readily welcoming us, when we turn our back on sin, and reach out for His infinite mercy. God be with us all always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 October 2013 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Jonah 3 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh : “By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat not drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from His fierce anger and spare us.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.

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Sunday, 6 October 2013 : 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Habakkuk 1 : 2-3 and Habakkuk 2 : 2-4

YHVH, how long will I cry for help while You pay no attention to me? I denounce the oppression and You do not save. Why do You make me see injustice? Are you pleased to look on tyranny? All I see is outrage, violence and quarrels.

Then YHVH answered me and said, “Write down the vision, inscribe it on tables so it can be easily read, since this is a vision for an appointed time; it will not fail but will be fulfilled in due time. If it delays, wait for it, for it will come and will not be deferred. Look : I do not look with favour on the one who gives way; the upright, on the other hand, will live by his faithfulness.”

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Saturday, 5 October 2013 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are again reminded of the great love that God has for all of us, the most beloved of His creations, as beloved children of God. We have disobeyed against Him and thus committed great sin before His eyes, and yet He continues to love us without end, and He even unconditionally gave Himself for us, His life and all, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Through Jesus, mankind had been given a new hope, and a new light in Christ Himself, and they had been revealed a glimpse of heaven through Jesus, who showed them the path of salvation and new life, eternal life in God. He revealed the Lord’s long planned plan of salvation to His beloved people, to those who possessed the humility of heart to listen to the word of salvation, that is the Good News of Jesus.

To those who had listened to the Lord, and obeyed His commands, leading an upright and just life in this world, to those who had not gone astray in their path, the Lord had exalted them in glory, the glory of His majesty, and they become His beloved children, safe from the power of the devil, the great enemy and the deceiver of all.

The evil one was thrown down from heaven, where he was once the greatest angel of creation, and because of his pride, arrogance, and vanity, he was thrown down. He boasted that he would rise above the throne of God and rule over creation and yet he was made into nothing. He was struck, and not only once, but twice, by the power of God.

For Satan continued his rebellion, by ensuring that it is not just him and some of his fellow angels that fall into the sin of rebellion, but also mankind through the temptation of Eve by Satan-in-disguise, the deceitful snake. This made mankind to also fall into sin, and was cast out of heaven, of the beautiful garden of Eden God had prepared for them, His beloved.

It is in Christ and His coming into this world, that Satan was struck again, and this time for eternity, for all time. He was defeated with such finality, that he will not rise again, and his fate was sealed. For in Christ lies the fulfillment of God’s desire for mankind to be saved from the fate that awaits them that is death. In Christ is the final nail to the coffin of the devil, the final destruction of his rebellion, that mankind, whom Satan caused to fall into sin, now through Christ has the hope of redemption.

The anger of God was indeed aimed at us, but as much as He is angry with us, He remains loving and forgiving, and the fullness of His wrath is truly aimed at the deceiver himself, the devil, Satan, the old snake. It is His wish that all of us be freed from our bondage to that rebellious angel, one who thought that he is the greatest of all. We have been bonded to him ever since our forefathers chose to obey him instead of their true Master, the Lord our God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must not fear the anger of the Lord our God. Rather, let us use that knowledge of His anger as a warning and a reminder to all of us, how much the Lord loves us and cares for us, that He is angered by our trespasses and our indignant rebellion against His love. Yet, He is always merciful and His heart is always open and available to all of us, especially those of us who repent from our sinful ways and return back to He who loves us with all our sincerity and love.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we should not fear the Lord anymore, and neither should we fear the devil, that great enemy of all. The former, is because He truly loves all of us, and punishes us or be angry with us, because He cares for us and our salvation, that we will not fall into eternal damnation, away from His love, out of which, there can be no escape. And the latter, because, through Jesus, the Lord had broken the chains that had enslaved us to the power of Satan. He had broken the chains of death through His own death on the cross. Christ had been triumphant, and He crushed the devil under His feet in glory.

Let us therefore, first, seek the Lord’s merciful love and forgiveness, baring all of ourselves and our hearts before Him, opening the deepest depths of our heart to Him. Let us then, allow His love to flow into us, and through us, that we be made into conduits of His love, through our words, deeds, and actions. We have to become the children of the light, and the children of love, that is God, and there is nothing better than our dedication to Him through our loving actions and words. May we continue to spread the love of God to all mankind. God bless us all. Amen.